Wireless network providers may offer a variety of different billing models to customers. Network providers may charge customers based on data traffic, based on services used (which can include access of content), or a combination of data traffic and service usage. With each of these models, the network provider may use a variety of different rating schemes. The rating schemes may be per usage, per levels of usage, per subscription, or combination of these schemes.
The billing models described above may be undermined when customers use secure networks (e.g., virtual private networks or secure peer to peer networks) to transmit communications. Communications over a secure network are encrypted before transmittal over the network. The network providers may therefore be unable to detect (and therefore bill) or even prevent certain types of communications from being transmitted which threaten the billing models. For instances, network providers may wish to charge users one rate for internet access and a different rate for voice communications. In order to maintain this model, the network providers may want to control or prevent use of Voice over IP (VoIP) solutions. However, the network provider may be unable to detect VoIP communications when customers are using a secure network. As another example, network providers may want to charge users one rate for mobile e-mails and a different rate for Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) messages. Again, customers may use a secure network to transmit email messages that cannot be detected by the network provider. Thus, the billing models used by network providers may be weakened or destroyed by the use of secure networks.
Network providers may also want to obtain other types of information about a wireless device. This information may